January In New England: Time To Play Golf!

Kyle Hedstrom calls it "bonus weather," the mild temperatures and lack of snow that are bringing people outdoors for a rare New England experience: a January round of golf.

The unusual weather prompted Stanley Golf Course in New Britain, where Hedstrom is the golf pro, to open for business Tuesday after being closed since Jan. 13. By midday, the parking lot was filling up.

"How crazy is this?" said Jim Bartolini of Farmington as he got ready for a round at Stanley. "I was going home to have lunch with my wife, but then I passed by and saw all the people here and my wife said 'Go play golf.'"

Golf courses often stay open into December, depending on the weather. But golfers and course operators said this winter has been unusual.

Gayle Bieluch, of Avon, said this is the first time she has been able to play through the winter. She was loading her golf cart Tuesday before setting out on the Stanely course.

"It's wonderful," Bieluch said. "We were looking at buying property in Florida, but this made us reassess whether we have to go down there to play in the winter."

Hedstrom said Stanley has been doing well this winter.

"We had one Saturday in January when we had more than 200 players, and besides that, we have averaged about 60 to 70 a day," Hedstrom said. "Usually, we have to close in mid-December, so right off the bat we had another month of golfing."

Stanley Golf Course is owned and operated by the City of New Britain. Bill DeMaio, director of parks and recreation, said he thinks it may be the only course in central Connecticut that is open – at least for now.

Other courses say their experience has been similar to Stanley, as many stayed open through December and into January.

A bit farther to the south, in Middlefield, the Lyman Orchards Golf Club has kept one of its two courses open for much of the winter.

"We only had one snow and that melted pretty quickly," said Lyman's general manager, David Christenson. "If it's warm we might see 170 people coming here, and I think we will see a lot of demand in the next couple of days. People are are excited to play."

Mark Castelhano, director of golf at the Rolling Meadow Country Club in Ellington, said his course hardly closed this winter. On some days the number of golfers there rivaled traffic in summer, he said.

"It snowed on Saturday, Jan. 21, and we were open the following Wednesday," Castelhano said. "We don't plan on closing and we're hoping to keep it going right through to the spring."

But even courses that are closed now have reported doing well earlier this winter.

"We had the best December we have ever had," said Marc Bayram, golf pro at Timberlin Golf Course in Berlin. "It was crazy — we were playing onNew Year's Day."

Bayram said that during December, 6,000 rounds of golf were played at Timberlin, which is owned by the Town of Berlin. Revenue from greens fees and golf cart rentals for December came to $17,259. Revenue for December 2010 — an unusually cold and snowy winter — was a paltry $533, according to financial reports the course filed with the town in January.

Bayram said Timberlin closed Jan. 2 and will remain so while work is completed to improve drainage in part of the course to prevent flooding during rainstorms.

"We have no plans to open now," Bayram said, "but you never know… if we get a warm day we would entertain thoughts of opening."

The Tunxis Plantation Golf Course in Farmington was also open into January, although it is closed now because parts of it are frozen.

"Last winter was terrible for winter golf," said Tunxis General Manager Lou Pandolfi, "but this year has been quite unusual. We had a couple of busy days in January and we'll take it as it goes."